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{
    "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/KER7EO3QGCQ5GEKDEO2J2O4R7IFLZSCZ/?format=api",
    "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/?format=api",
    "message_id": "CAN6TEUeTDEAHyyFE1rQ4WMWds6RWZt4Yxi5n9JA0bUvprUeiTA@mail.gmail.com",
    "message_id_hash": "KER7EO3QGCQ5GEKDEO2J2O4R7IFLZSCZ",
    "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/KER7EO3QGCQ5GEKDEO2J2O4R7IFLZSCZ/?format=api",
    "sender": {
        "address": "amsat-bb (a) wd9ewk.net",
        "mailman_id": "21664df01bef4757931b7cdb42a9e768",
        "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/21664df01bef4757931b7cdb42a9e768/emails/?format=api"
    },
    "sender_name": "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)",
    "subject": "[amsat-bb] Saturday evening @ WD9EWK - two AO-85 passes...",
    "date": "2015-10-11T14:17:20Z",
    "parent": null,
    "children": [
        "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/5JIYTBK74Z7B5CZSCEZDCJICJOUOQB6U/?format=api"
    ],
    "votes": {
        "likes": 0,
        "dislikes": 0,
        "status": "neutral"
    },
    "content": "Hi!\n\nBecause I had to be awake for a 5am/1200 UTC conference call with my office\nthis morning, I only worked two passes last (Saturday) evening. Both were\nAO-85 passes, with different radios for each of the passes. It is amazing\nthat we have access to this satellite's FM transponder, so soon after its\nlaunch.\n\nThe first pass I attempted was around 0215 UTC. This pass was an overhead\npass, so I took advantage of that to try another one of my Chinese-made\ndual-band HTs (Wouxun KG-UV8D) with this U/V FM satellite. The KG-UV8D was\nconnected to my Elk log periodic. I had my SDRplay receiver out in the yard\nfor this pass, connected to the VHF crossed dipole sold by AMSAT-UK, with\nHDSDR running on my 8-inch Windows 10 tablet to make an RF recording of\nthis pass. After the pass, I would play the RF recording from HDSDR into\nthe FoxTelem software, so the telemetry I captured would be uploaded to the\nAMSAT server.\n\nI had previously written a lot about the KG-UV8D in a thread on the QRZ.com\nsatellite forum last year. I had tested it against the Fox-1A engineering\nmodel at two events in 2014, and it was able to work the transponder on the\nengineering model without suffering from receiver desense when transmitting\non 70cm. I was working the transponder at the low-power setting (1W), and\nwould move the HT around to shield the radio from the model, all in attempts\nto simulate working an actual satellite in orbit. Not hearing any desense,\nI was hopeful this HT would be one that could work Fox-1A (now AO-85) full-\nduplex. The answer...\n\nYES\n\nThere are issues with the KG-UV8D's receiver, where you'll occasionally\nhear what might be more static coming through on the receiver. The noise\nlevel increases, even when receiving a stronger signal like from a local\n2m or 70cm repeater, or other non-amateur transmitters. I had to be more\ndiligent in orienting my Elk log periodic, so I could hear the AO-85\ndownlink clearly. When I was able to get through the transponder, I could\nclearly hear my voice in the earpiece I plugged into the HT. I also heard\nmyself in the RF recording written by HDSDR on my tablet. It helped that\nI changed both the receive and transmit VFOs to use narrow FM, instead of\n\"wide\" FM. My transmitted audio seemed better, when I heard myself on the\nRF recording from HDSDR, and I could hear the downlink better on the HT\nduring the pass. I worked K8YSE/7 here in the Phoenix area and KO6TZ in\nsouthern California just before the satellite was directly over my head.\nThis is in line with my previous test with the KG-UV9D, where lower power\nlevels were not sufficient to get through AO-85 until the satellite was\nup from the horizon a bit.\n\nFor the uplink, I was able to get through using 435.165 MHz for my two\nQSOs with the KG-UV8D. Downlink... I started on 145.9825 MHz, then tuned\ndown to 145.980 MHz, and later I tuned down to 145.9775 MHz. Just like I\nsaw when I used my KG-UV9D Friday evening, the sharper receive filters in\nthe Chinese-made radios made using the smaller tuning step (2.5 kHz)\nuseful.\n\nAfter this pass, I played the HDSDR RF recording into FoxTelem, and\nuploaded 9 packets to the AMSAT server. Had I used the Elk with the SDR\nsetup, I am sure I would have collected many more packets from that pass.\n\nThe second pass I worked, around 0400 UTC, was a shallow pass. AO-85 was\nonly up to a maximum elevation of just over 11 degrees. I used only my\nIcom IC-2820H for this pass. I had used the IC-2820H as the uplink radio\nfor a pass I worked Friday evening with my SDRplay receiver and HDSDR\nhandling the downlink, but wanted to try the mobile radio by itself this\ntime. it had no problems hearing the downlink, once AO-85 rose above the\nnearby mountains and houses.\n\nI started the radio on 435.160 MHz for the uplink (with 67.0 Hz tone\nactivated for this VFO), and 145.980 MHz for the downlink. Both with\nnarrow FM, a suggestion that had been tweeted earlier by Peter 2E0SQL. I\nwas not able to get through using 435.160 MHz, but was able to when I\ntuned my uplink to 435.165 MHz. Later in the pass, I could get through\nwhen transmitting on 435.170 and 435.175 MHz. I had to use 15W, and at\ntimes 50W, to get through. The pass was too shallow for me to get through\nat 5W. Around the midpoint of the pass, possibly just after that, I had\nto tune my receive VFO down to 145.975 MHz to hear the rest of the pass.\nI mostly heard stations in California, along with W7JPI in southern\nArizona and WQ3U in Oregon, and logging a total of 5 QSOs (working all I\nheard, except for WQ3U).\n\nThe later pass was more orderly, probably a function of the footprint\ncovering more of the Pacific Ocean. All stations allowed time for others\nto make (or complete) their calls. Fading is still an issue, and we all\nexperienced the fades while trying to complete QSOs.\n\nSome observations...\n\nNow that I have a KG-UV9D HT, I probably won't use the KG-UV8D much. The\nKG-UV9D's receiver is probably the best receiver for satellite work from\nany of the Chinese-made HTs I have tried. The KG-UV8D *is* capable of full-\nduplex operation on AO-85, something that I had been told last year would\nnot be possible with this radio (and before we had a U/V FM satellite to\ntest radios against).\n\nWhile working the earlier pass with the HT, I kept an eye on HDSDR on my\ntablet. Once again, with AO-85's downlink, the AFC function tracked the\ndownlink from start to finish. I would not have had to make any manual\nadjustments to the downlink frequency, had I used the SDR setup as my\ndownlink receiver.\n\nAfter installing a virtual audio cable on my laptop, I was able to feed\nthe RF recording I made with HDSDR into the FoxTelem software. I think this\nis how I will send telemetry to the AMSAT server, unless I have an occasion\nto use the FUNcube Dongle Pro+ and FoxTelem to send telemetry to the\nserver automatically. When I am able to work the passes, I will use the\nSDRplay, which appears to work a little better for working satellites, and\nin making a RF recording that FoxTelem is able to extract more data packets\nfrom.\n\nAs I have been doing recently, I uploaded files related to last night's\nAO-85 passes to my Dropbox space. You can get to that using this link:\n\nhttp://dropbox.wd9ewk.net/\n\n(press F5 if the folder/file listing doesn't appear immediately)\n\nI have only one RF recording from last night, since I didn't use an SDR\nreceive setup for the later pass. I have MP3 files from each pass, to show\nwhat I heard on the KG-UV8D and IC-2820H as I worked each pass. Photos\nand screengrabs, too.\n\nThanks again to AMSAT for allowing us to use the FM transponder on AO-85 so\nsoon after the launch! I have a few radios, and combinations of radios, I\nwant to try with this U/V FM satellite. I have used different setups for\neach AO-85 pass I have worked, and hope to continue this for a while. This\neffort may take a pause while I attend the upcoming AMSAT Symposium, but I\nwill certainly continue this after the Symposium.\n\n73!\n\n\n\n\nPatrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK\nhttp://www.wd9ewk.net/\nTwitter: @WD9EWK\n",
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